Catacombs & Castles is a team-based dexterity game where players flick wooden discs representing either the noble defenders of Team Castle or the Wraith Knights of Team Catacomb. The game was designed by Aron West, illustrated by Kwanchai Moriya, and published by Elzra. The game is quick to play with battles lasting about 30-minutes.

The game uses the same “Dexterity Game System” and rule set found in Elzra’s award-winning fantasy dungeon crawler, Catacombs Third Edition. If players are familiar with Catacombs, then they’ll have a good sense of how the basic moves in Castles works already.  Catacombs is asymmetric in that one player (the “Overseer”) controls hordes of baddies as the opposing players lead a team of four heroes, venturing through the dungeon to confront a final boss — either a Dragon, Gorgon, Lich, or Sorcerer. Catacombs & Castles offers two different ways to play: “Team Mode” and “Boss Mode”. In Team Mode, players manage heroes from either Team Castle or Team Catacomb to defeat the opposing team in fast-paced dexterity combat. This mode is fully competitive (no Overseer required) and supports up to eight players. Boss Mode enables an asymmetric battle with either the Castle Lord or Catacomb Lord supported by their army of Warriors.

The game includes eight heroes: the Huntress, Watch Commander, Ranger, and Mage Princess on Team Castle, and the Marauder, Vampire Princess, Queen of Storms, and Assassin on Team Catacomb. A double-sided game board depicts the towers and walls of Team Castle’s base on one side. The underground lair of Team Catacomb’s Wraith Knights is on the other. Like Catacombs, the game includes Elzra’s Wall System that prevents pieces from falling off of the table during play.

In Catacombs & Castles, preparing to play is part of the game.  Players from opposing teams take turns building a three-dimensional environment that complements the game board’s artwork. They do this by placing different wooden shapes on top of icons printed on the board. To provide different layout possibilities, the rectangular blocks may be placed in any orientation. The base Catacombs & Castles game includes three different types of block and future expansions will include others.  Once the game board is configured, the players place their team of heroes in each corner, and the battle begins.

In Catacombs & Castles, all heroes have a basic ranged attack represented by a separate disc. Players will be flicking their hero’s disc, then shooting various arrows, ninja stars, nets, or fireballs. These unique actions that heroes may perform are called “shot sequences” and are printed on each hero’s rule card for reference. For example, the Huntress may move and then shoot her longbow or perform a melee attack. Like the moves of each piece in a game of chess, the basic shot sequences for each hero are balanced between the two teams. This ensures that fully balanced games are possible, where the players who win are those that demonstrate the highest degree of skill.

The two teams diverge in their various Ability cards included with the game.  In Team Mode, these are charged up by capturing Health Tokens from the opposing team.  Once a card has enough Health Tokens (typically one or two), then a player may choose to activate it by discarding the tokens and playing the shot sequence on that card.  An Ability card may be charged up and used again. There’s a way to help your teammates charge their Ability cards more quickly. On the other hand, players can sabotage an opponent’s Ability card to prevent them from activating it in the first place. Many Ability cards enable “Team Actions” where teammates may join an attack and pile on an opponent or come to a teammate’s aid and rescue them from a tough spot.

As a standalone game, Catacombs & Castles provides a strategic and competitive experience. Players will have to work together in order for their team of heroes to be victorious. Due to their shared foundation, heroes from Catacombs Third Edition can be used in Catacombs & Castles, and vice-versa. Even the Team Catacomb heroes are ready for some dungeon crawling: they aren’t fussy about where they plunder their gold.

Catacombs Third Edition and the Cavern of Soloth expansion are back in print and both were awarded the Dice Tower Seal of Excellence.  Catacombs is also recommended by Shut Up & Sit Down!, TricTrac, and the podcasts We’re Not Wizards and Sweet Kicks with Bricks. Finally, dragon-riding comes to both games with the addition of the Wyverns of Wylemuir expansion due to be released soon. Happy flicking!

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Aron West is the founder of Elzra Corp. and designer of several games including Catacombs & Castles. Elzra is based in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.